Canada’s unions are under pressure but they’re moving ahead this Labour Day with the emergence of the super-union Unifor and outreach to young workers.

A rally was held in Toronto on Aug. 30, 2013, by Unifor, now the largest private-sector union in Canada, to protest the possible entry of U.S. firm Verizon into the Canadian wireless market.

Published on Mon Sep 02 2013

Canada’s unions are on the march this Labour Day — in more ways than one. Two of our biggest workers’ organizations merged over the weekend to create a super-union called Unifor. After a long decline, the rate of unionization in this country has stabilized, even ticking upward last year. And several unions are engaged in an aggressive push to recruit people who are stuck in “precarious” employment.

Business may not welcome it, but organized labour is a well-established force for social good — one that has raised the standard of living of a great many of us. Statistics Canada rightly counts union membership as a key “indicator of well-being” and it rose last year. About 31.5 per cent of employees were represented by a union, up from 31.2 per cent in 2011.

That still leaves a large majority without coverage, including some of this country’s most vulnerable workers. Many Canadians, especially the young, find themselves trapped in low-paying retail and other part-time employment — often with few benefits, no job security and little hope for advancement. Discontent runs deep. Even in the United States, hardly fertile soil for labour organizers, there was an eruption of nation-wide protests last week as fast-food workers walked off the job demanding better pay.

There’s an opportunity here for organized labour — and unions are responding. The United Food and Commercial Workers announced a breakthrough earlier this summer having organized, for the first time in Canada, an outlet in the Sirens clothing chain. A group of Halifax baristas recently voted to join the Service Employees International Union. And Unifor, now the largest private-sector union in this country, is poised for a bold drive targeting workers in precarious employment.

The product of a merger between the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, this new labour giant represents more than 300,000 people working in 20 different sectors of the economy. And it is determined to grow. Expanded recruitment was a much-discussed topic at Unifor’s founding convention in Toronto over the weekend. A great deal of attention is going toward the intriguing challenge of enrolling “workers in precarious, temporary, contract, self-employed and freelance positions,” and even the unemployed.

Among hurdles facing labour is figuring out exactly how to serve the needs of this hard-to-reach population. Another challenge is push-back from employers, including governments, bent on rolling back gains made by unions. In Ontario, which already has the second-lowest unionization rate in the country (after Alberta), Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak is promising to deliver American-style, union-busting legislation. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is no friend to labour, and even the Liberal government at Queen’s Park has gone to war against its teachers’ unions. There’s now a truce on that front thanks to Premier Kathleen Wynne.

As part of research leading to the creation of Unifor, a study done last year warned that many non-union workers consider organized labour a “vested interest” with little relevance to their lives. This negative attitude was deemed the greatest potential threat to Canadian unions over the long run. And authors of the report concluded those hearts and minds need to be won over.

The key to doing that lies in highlighting the benefits of union membership. The Canadian Labour Congress recently pegged this “union advantage” at $4.97 an hour — that’s how much more the average unionized worker earns than a counterpart who isn’t in a labour organization. Citing Statistics Canada figures, the CLC calculated that unionized women benefit even more, earning an extra $6.61 an hour compared to women in non-union workplaces.

“We in the labour movement take satisfaction in knowing that we have helped to build a stronger middle class,” said labour congress president Ken Georgetti.

That’s worth bearing in mind this Labour Day, amid all the marching and manifestoes, the banners and the bluster, the drumming, flags, logo-bearing T-shirts and chanting in unison. This movement is far from dying. On the contrary, it has reason to celebrate. A great many Canadians would be poorer today if not for the work of their union.

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